Cloven
by Thunderboom
Summary: My final fanfic to be published, a story of a technicain who thinks that you should be able to collect the souls of EVERYONE, not just villians. Rated M for brutal murders of innocent people.


**Foreword by Thunderboom:**

Hello, everyone, for what may possibly be the final time. I began writing fanfics way back when years ago, and published my rather successful series, "Digimon Advanced" on this website. However, it has been a long time since I wrote a fanfic. It's not that I lost interest or anything, it's just that...how should I put it...I've "grown up" I suppose you could say. I've matured enough that I no longer need to use a precreated world to write my stories in. Reading over my old works, they make merather embarrassed (_I can't believe I could write something like that and think it was even half-decent!_).

Recently, together with my sister, I've been working on doujins, including games, manga, and short stories (you can find a link to our website on my profile). One day, though, I'd like to get back to Digimon Advanced. I still keep that folder of references and stories on my desktop, cataloging each character, their digimon's evolution paths, and other things, most of which never even got a chance to appear in the series. Someday, I'll go back and rewrite them, but in the meantime I think the characters will seep into my other works. They may have different names or looks, but their personalities will remain the same. So, if I ever creat "Digimon Advanced: Neo", then I look forward to you all reading it!

Everyone, please continue to support us in the future as you have in the past. We leave ourselves in your, the readers', hands. Anyway, I've been going on for a bit too long. So, without further ado, may I present the final Thunderboom Fanfic:

**SOUL EATER**

**Cloven**

**A Short Story**

**by Thunderboom**

"What the heck is up with this, anyway!?" Aiko complained.

"Hmm? What's wrong now, Ojou-sama?" asked her partner, Takumi.

Aiko leaned back on the bench the pair was sitting on.

"What I mean is..." Aiko explained, "Why can we only murder 'those that have strayed from the path of humanity'??"

"Possibly because we're vigilantes, not murderers." Takumi replied, "Wait, you mean to say that you would like to kill others, as well?!"

"Takumi..." Aiko said, and she sat up to look him in his eyes, "I'd be happy killing _everyone_. Every single human on the planet. Heck, why just humans? I'll kill every single living thing. Hmm...but what about the undead? Meh, I'll destroy them too."

"So, in other words..." Takumi said, trying to grasp the situation, "You won't rest or be happy until you've wiped every single organism, aside from us, off the face of this planet?"

"That, Takumi...is _exactly_ what I mean."

**Chapter 1**

_**Shini, Shini, Shini...**_

Aiko stared at the wall of assignment postings.

"Bleh," she said, "All the good ones have already been taken..."

She glared at the retreating backs of Maka, Soul, and their friends.

"...By _them_." she finished.

"_Ano..._Ojou-sama..." Takumi said, "Here's a good one."

Aiko read it over.

"Excellent!" she cried in delight, and she added as an afterthought, "Plus...that one's kind of dangerous. Innocent bystanders could get...hurt."

She began giggling uncontrolablly, and declared, "Alright, we'll do it!"

*******

"Well, we did it." Takumi said, looking over the mass of carnage Aiko had created.

"Not quite, Takumi..." she said, glaring at her surroundings, "Return to your cleaver form."

"_Hai, Ojou-sama._" Takumi said, complying.

Aiko walked slowly towards a bloodied corpse of one of the "innocent bystanders" who, of course, "got in the way unavoidebly".

"Oka-san...Oka-san!" a small child was crying, hugging her late mother's head.

"Aiko, you don't actually plan on...?!" Takumi demanded, his voice emanating from the blade of the cleaver.

Aiko smiled cruelly.

"Yes, Takumi," she said, "I do."

"Oka-san...Oka-sa---"

"Pft." Aiko said, wiping the blood off her cleaver, "I prefer it when they scream..."

*******

"Hmm, Aiko-chan..." Shinigami-sama said, looking over her report, "There was an awful lot of casualties, as always..."

"My apologies, Shinigami-sama," Aiko said, "My targets seem to atack any and all bystanders before I can stop them."

_Yeah, right..._ Takumi thought, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Hmm..." Shinigami-sama said, "I'm going to partner you with another technician to help prevent more."

Aiko's eyes widened.

"N-no..." she muttered.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, Shinigami-sama." Aiko said quickly, "Who will my partner be?"

"Maka-chan seems like a good choice...I'll send her."

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama, for giving me help. Hopefully, there will be less 'unavoidable casualties' in teh future." Aiko said, and she left.

"_Kuso!_" Aiko cursed, wishing Shinigami-sama hadn't given her "assistance".

"Well, Ojou-sama," Takumi said, "It was bound to happen sooner or later, what with all the deaths you cause."

"Yes, but it could have been delayed more, I know it..."

"Maybe you shouldn't have killed 2-and-a-half dozen 'bystanders' this time."

"True...I did go a bit overboard." Aiko admitted, "But killing's just so fun! I can't help myself..."

**Chapter 2**

_**Maka-chan to Aiko-chan**_

Maka and Soul were easily able to defeat the targets, but when the fighting was over, they couldn't see Aiko or Takumi.

"Where'd they go? Abondoning your teammates is so uncool..." Soul muttered, looking around.

"They said they were going to circle around to the back..." Maka said, equally concerned, "Maybe they ran into some trouble?"

Just then, a piercing scream emanated from a nearby alley, so they rushed off to see what was up.

******

"N-no..please..." a scared man was saying, trying to escape but winding up trapped against a wall.

A cold, insane laugh filled the area, along with the sound of metal scraping against the ground.

As Aiko raised her blade to finish her victim, a voice called out.

"Aiko, stop!"

"Eh...?" Aiko asked, looking in the direction of the voice.

Maka stood at the end of the alley, sycthe in hand.

"I cannot allow you to do that, Aiko." she said resolutely.

"Oh? Try to stop me..." AIko said, pressing her blade against the man's neck.

Maka rushed at Aiko, but failed to reach her before she beheaded the man.

Aiko quickly spun around and rose her cleaver on the defensive, blocking Maka's scythe attack.

Attyempting to discern something, Maka looked at Aiko's soul. It wasn't an "egg of the demon lord"...but it was pure evil.

"It's our mission as technicians to defeat those that have strayed from the path of humanity!" Maka told Aiko, continuing the fight.

"Only one thing, Maka...I can't

'stray' if I never walked the path in teh frst place!"

Aiko lunged at Maka, attempting to stab her, but Maka proved too quick.

Aiko stopped in her tracks, a large amount of blood splurting from her mouth. She looked down, to see the large gash in her torso, spewing blood.

Aiko smiled insanely once more, trying to gather up her own blood in her hands.

"It's so...bueatiful..." she said, and she collapased.

Takumi, when he hit the ground, shattered into several pieces.

Maka sighed.

"I hope no one else is like this..." she said, and they went to report the mission to Shinigami-sama.

**THE END**


End file.
